Dead Wixel?

Hello everybody,

I have made some tests of wireless connexion between my two wixels, and after a transfer of a modified app one of my Wixels seems to be dead. The alim is good (PIN 3.3v is 3.3v …), the yellow led turn on when the RESET pin is pulled down, but I have no more connexion with my computer and between the two Wixels.

Any idea ?

Thanks !

Martin

Hello, Martin.

Are you saying that the yellow LED is off normally, but while RST is low it turns on? That would be strange.

It is quite possible that one of your modifications to the app made the Wixel’s USB interface stop working. You should still be able to force it into bootloader mode. Please see the “Connecting Buttons and Starting the Bootloader” section of the the Wixel User’s Guide for instructions on how to do this.

–David

It works perfectly, thank you David !

Have a nice day,

Martin

Hello,

One of my wixels stopped working after rewriting it’s memory. I managed to put it into the bootloader mode (connected the 3V3 to the P2_2 with a wire), but now it got stuck there. I am able to load any of the the apps from the SDK, but they won’t start (USB Product ID: 0x0100, Status: App Stopped). The green and the yellow LEDs are blinking constantly (after two green blink, ther’s a short yellow one)

Any idea what to do?

Hello Stevie

Have you removed the wire from P2_2 to the 3V3 after programming?

Hello RolphH,

Yes I did, but still can’t back from the bootloader mode. Now the yellow light is continuous, and the green led is
blinking twice a sec.

Anyway, thanks for the reply! Any other ideas?

p.s.: I had the same problem with another wixel (same buggy app and freezing), but after a manual bootload, and app rewrite, the second one started working just as before.

I am just new to these myself Stevie and I am sure that the guys from pololu will come through for you.
For a complete shot in the dark, is it possible that the bootloader routine has become corrupt? Perhaps you may find some pointers at Texas Instruments,

ti.com/product/cc2511f32#appNote

Have a look around as this is the main chip on the wixel, from a brief look at this app sheet: ti.com/lit/an/swra371a/swra371a.pdf
I found some references to an led being used to to debug and indicate what state the chip is in.
Well good luck anyway.
Regards
Rolph.

Hello, Stevie.

Earlier you said that the yellow LED was blinking, and now you are saying that it is on continuously. Do you know what caused this change? Did you disconnect or connect something?

What is connected to the Wixel?

Please try following instructions 1-7 in the “Loading an Example App” section of the Wixel user’s guide to load our example blink LED app. You should use the wxl file from our website to be sure you are working with a file that is compiled correctly. Then, please disconnect the wire from P2_2 to the 3V3 if you haven’t already. If it’s easy, please disconnect everything else from the Wixel too. Now, plug the Wixel back into USB. At this point it will hopefully be running the example blink LED app, so you should see the red LED blinking.

–David

Hello David,

Thanks for the advice, but i already tried the things you’ve mentioned. All the wires are disconnected, and the precompiled “example_blink_led” is loaded (also verified). I get no error message or anything, except the app won’t start. Same USB product ID (0x0100 - the same value in device manager under the hardware id section), and Status (App Stopped) as mentioned earlier.

Earlier you said that the yellow LED was blinking, and more recently you said that it is on continuously. Do you know what caused this change? Did you disconnect or connect something? Is it still on continuously?

–David

The wixel is blinking as it should in bootloader mode, and I am able to write/read/verfify apps to it. The only problem is that i can’t get back from the bootloader mode, so that I could run the loaded app.

Unfortunately, it sounds like this Wixel’s P2_2 I/O line has stopped functioning properly as an input, and there is not much more we can do to troubleshoot it. If you email us with your order information and refer to this thread then I might be able to get you a discount on a replacement.

–David